Connie, we help each other and laugh with one another, not at one another. :)

Fermentation is the more traditional method. It is stinky but effective. Squeeze the seeds and gel from the tomato into a cup or container. I usually put some saran wrap over the top of the cup, poke a hole in the saran and let it set for a few days. When a lovely (blech) layer of mold covers the top, get out the strainer and dump it in. Pull the slimey gross layer out. Rinse the seeds very well and put on a coffee filter to dry. (They tend to stick to napkins and paper towels)

Some have success with scrubbing the seeds with things like oxyclean. JD? You out there? :)

Messy, but very easy, Connie. Good luck

PS, Bonnie, the last of the seeds are dry so headed your way tomorrow. :)

Thanks for that, Jali! I knew you had to ferment them somehow, but never knew exactly how to do it!

Now I have a question! How do you know which varieties are open pollinated, and will come true from seed---and which ones aren't, and won't???

Always something new to learn!
Skybird

To be *sure*, and thats a relative question and depends on what you intend to accomplish, it's prolly best to take 5-6 tomatoes, preferably from different plants of the same variety, and do the squeeze juice / seed ferment thing. It is also prolly best to pick fruit that was formed early in the season because there is less likelihood, given the relatively lower number of pollinating bugs about early in the season, that it might be a cross, and it is self-pollinated.

That being said, an awful lot of folks just save the seeds from a really good tomato, and it works out pretty good 98% of the time.

A trick with cleaning the seeds following the fermentation that I've found works very well - pick off the slimy mold on top, throw it out, and add water, then use a whisk / fork / beatup twig to whisk the remaining seeds and slop around. The seeds settle to the bottom, pour off the top fluid, refill with fresh water, and whir up again. Repeat 5 or 6 times and the seeds are pretty clean. I then swirl up the seeds and a half inch of water and pour them out on paper. I will use coffee filters next time, because they sure do stick to paper towel. I put them in my food dehydrator and run it on 100º for 2-3 hours, and they're dry. Paper envelope.

You can check if the variety is open pollenated, or a hybrid, by going to one of the web sites, like tomato-growers-supply, and see their blurb. Open pollenated ones work.

In the years I've done this, I've never got a cross. The suspected one I had this year was, it turns out, what happens when an oxheart is put in the bestest soil I had and the plant grew to 8' high, and the fruit a sold 1 lb.

The seed is good for at least 5 years, probably more.

I saved seeds this year for the first time, including tomatoes, and also did not know how to proceed...

The first batches I fermented in glass loaf pans with saran wrap. These worked well but it seemed like a more narrow and taller glass would work better. I used small canning jars with the next batches and I think it worked better (easier to swish the contents) and I used less water during the rinses. In the Denver area, it is so dry in the early fall that I just put my cleaned seeds on a plate to dry, by a window if windy or used an oscillating fan if not. Although a newbie, I think the key is to get the seeds to dry quickly, without too much/any heat, after fermentation. I performed a germination experiment with harvested seeds vs. the commercial seeds, used to grow the plant, and the harvested seeds germinated better EVERY time. My google search gave inconclusive/mixed results as to the origins of my favorites so I am growing some plants over the winter for differences in fruit. The seedlings look identical.

I read that if you grow non-hybrid tomatoes, and perhaps even hybrids, and save the seed, eventually you'll have strains that grow well in your specific garden; as the commercial seed suppliers may be a continent away from your garden plot.

Thanks so much for your help. I had absolutely NO idea that you had to ferment them first. I was just going to dry the seeds and store them. I'm glad that I asked the helpful people here. Thanks again, RMG!

Connie

I use yogurt containers to ferment my seed with and write on the container what the seed is. Helps keep from mixing up. I also use coffee filters and write on them the seed variety and fold them in half and lay on a pan or a plate in the other room and let them dry. When dry and more time I then put them in envelopes. Supposedly the fermenting cuts down on some of the diseases that can be transfered from the plant to the seed.